by Glenn Keator, University of California Press, 2002, 251 pages, $14.95 (www.ucpress.edu). Bay Area botanist Glenn Keator, author of The Life of an Oak: An Intimate Portrait (Heyday Books, 1998), has now assembled the well-written, easy-to-use Introduction to Trees … Read more
Art & Design | Botany | Climate Change | El Niño | Fire | Fungi | Geology | History | The Bay | The Ocean | Urban Nature | Water | Weather | Wildlife
Lodi Crane Festival
Fall marks the height of bird migrations along the Pacific Flyway. And while the Bay Area has plenty of birds to see, you’ll have to head a bit farther east to see the spectacular sandhill cranes that winter in the … Read more
Monarch Day at Natural Bridges
To see slightly more diminutive returning migrants, head south on Sunday, October 12, for Welcome Back Monarchs Day at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. By mid-October, the butterflies have begun to arrive from as far away as 2,000 … Read more
Ocean Awareness Campaign
As thousands of monarchs return to the protection of the California State Park system, a coalition of marine conservation organizations wants to remind Americans that less than one percent of the world’s ocean waters benefit from such government-administered refuges. The … Read more
State of the Estuary
The past two decades have witnessed an explosion of scientific studies of the San Francisco Bay estuary, vastly improving our understanding of its natural history and ecology. Every two years the San Francisco Estuary Project brings together researchers, government officials, … Read more
Stavocet/Avostilt
While you’re exploring the Bay Area this fall, keep your eyes open for the new bird on the Bay. Ten years after Jim Rosso’s initial sighting, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory Intern Biologist Robin Dakin and photographer David Cardinal recently … Read more
Life on Black Mountain
Q: Getting permission to live in a cabin on Black Mountain Ranch (in the hills east of Palo Alto) in 1975 must have been pretty exciting for a graduate student with a young family. A: I was working on a … Read more
Peninsula Treasure
This former home of Italian winemakers, a ’70s commune, and a recluse named Indian Joe saw its share of history before being acquired by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Now it boasts its fair share of easily accessible geological anomalies, diverse wildlife, and spectacular views.
The Essential Tree
It’s almost impossible to imagine the California landscape without oak woodlands. But this most familiar and prolific habitat faces a number of serious threats, including unchecked suburban development and Sudden Oak Death. Fortunately, many parks in the Bay Area, including those of the East Bay Regional Parks, offer welcome refuge for a variety of oak woodlands.
Four Threats to a Healthy Bay
Habitat Loss On the fringes of the Bay lie the varied wetlands that feed and shelter the Bay’s wildlife. Chinook salmon, white croaker, and northern pintails feed in the shallow water as it fluctuates with the tides. Topsmelt, Pacific staghorn … Read more